Charting the global economy: Inflation in US exceeds projections

US consumer prices rose firmly once again in October, keeping Federal Reserve policymakers on course to raise interest rates at their meeting next month.

The consumer price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.3% for a third straight month, while the overall CPI jumped 0.4% as the cost of essentials climbed across the board.

Meanwhile, the UK economy expanded in the third quarter by the most since early 2024. In China, the trade surplus exceeded $1 trillion this year through October.


Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy, markets and geopolitics:

US

A hotter-than-expected October inflation report showed price pressures for US consumers remain broad and unremitting, raising worries among some Federal Reserve officials that they may need to act more aggressively to tame inflation.

Nvidia Corp.’s stock plunged at the open Thursday, taking the chipmaker’s market capitalization below $4 trillion for the first time since 2025, after Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang resigned following the revelation of two affairs, one with a suspected Chinese spy.

US previously owned home sales fell last month to a 16-year low as a cascade of negative news on mortgage rates and inflation deterred would-be buyers.

Surging healthcare costs are pushing employers toward a difficult tradeoff: shift higher premiums onto workers or cut back on wage increases, further squeezing household budgets. Health insurance costs for private-sector employers climbed 6.4% in the year through September, matching the fastest annual increase since 2005.

Europe

The UK economy grew at its fastest pace in two and a half years, after the rollout of artificial intelligence fueled spending by businesses and consumers continued to weather the energy shock caused by the Iran war. Gross domestic product rose 0.7% in the third quarter after rising 0.5% in the prior three-month period.

Poland’s economic growth slowed a tad more than expected in the third quarter as consumers turned cautious amid a spike in fuel prices and rising global tensions.

Romania’s economy grew at the fastest pace in four years, with an influx of European Union funds probably boosting investment and a good agricultural harvest partly offsetting a weakening industry.

Asia & Australia

China’s trade surplus ballooned to just over $1 trillion for the year despite the biggest surge in imports since 2021, with an increasingly lopsided relationship with the European Union accounting for nearly a third of the overall imbalance.

Chinese kindergartens, primary and junior high schools saw enrollment shrink by nearly 17 million between 2021 and 2025, an official said on Tuesday, a precipitous decline that’s forcing the government to adapt education to a period of historic demographic contraction. The number of births for every thousand people dropped last year to the lowest since at least 1949, while the cohort of citizens who are 65 and older exceeded 223 million, a new high.

Australian home loans posted a record drop in the third quarter, underscoring the erosion of borrowing demand in response to the Reserve Bank’s aggressive interest-rate increases to control inflation. The value of new home loans fell 15.5% in the three months through September.

Emerging Markets

Mexico’s annual inflation accelerated more than expected in October, likely to intensify scrutiny of the central bank’s recent decision to cut interest rates in the face of persistent price pressures.

Argentina’s inflation ticked up slightly in October on the heels of September’s pick-up, pointing to sticky price pressures that pose a challenge for President Javier Milei ahead of next year’s election.

World

Central bankers in Romania and Uganda kept interest rates unchanged. Officials in Peru, Mauritius and Serbia raised borrowing costs.